Current Search: FAU (x) » American Civil War --United States --Pictorial Works. (x) » Criticism and interpretation (x) » Alonso, Raquel. (x)
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Title
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Author-ity, privilege and violation: the role of subaltern and the intellectual in the novels of Julia Alvarez.
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Creator
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Alonso, Raquel., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
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Abstract/Description
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Can the subaltern really speak? Invoking Gayatri Spivak's post-colonial theory on the subaltern, this study aims to highlight the necessary, yet problematic relationship between intellectuals and the marginalized groups they seek to represent. This study argues that in the last chapter of Julia Alvarez's How the Garcâia Girls Lost Their Accents, the image of the wailing cat becomes a haunting image regarding Alvarez's own subject-position as a writer, a role that often places her in the...
Show moreCan the subaltern really speak? Invoking Gayatri Spivak's post-colonial theory on the subaltern, this study aims to highlight the necessary, yet problematic relationship between intellectuals and the marginalized groups they seek to represent. This study argues that in the last chapter of Julia Alvarez's How the Garcâia Girls Lost Their Accents, the image of the wailing cat becomes a haunting image regarding Alvarez's own subject-position as a writer, a role that often places her in the center of harsh criticism. Consequently, this project traces the subaltern figures through three of Alvarez's texts -¡YO!, In the Time of the Butterflies, and Saving the World - in order to reveal the paradox that defines their relationship with the privileged body that seeks to be their representative. The subaltern cannot speak beyond the margins without the help of the elite; however, the same position of privilege and power that enables the intellectual to write can quickly become the factor that discredits their right to speak. Consequently, this study also attempts to reclaim the voice of Julia Alvarez, who is herself silenced and thus, rendered subaltern in the literary market by critics who feel that her privileged position complicates her ability to represent the collective.
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Date Issued
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2010
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2867330
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Subject Headings
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Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Marginality, Social
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Format
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Document (PDF)